Radical Practice
A free architecture lecture by Marlon Blackwell (USA)

“Blackwell has a gift for seeing potential in the commonplace . . . for making use of simple geometries and modest materials to create beautiful functional architecture.” Michael Cockram, Architectural Record

Join us for a fascinating lecture by leading American architect Marlon Blackwell.

Marlon Blackwell is the founder and principal at Marlon Blackwell Architects, a design firm established in 1992 in Arkansas, US. His design practice has been the recipient of numerous major awards and honours, including the 2020 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal, the 2020 Southeastern Conference Professor of the Year, and the 2016 National Design Award for Architecture Design from Cooper-Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. In 2014, he was named a United States Artists Ford Fellow (in Architecture and Design). In 2012, he received the Architecture Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2023 Blackwell was elected as a member to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Blackwell has taught at the University of Arkansas since 1992, where he is the E. Fay Jones Chair in Architecture and a Distinguished Professor in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. Blackwell has held visiting professorships at institutions around the United States, and currently at Harvard University.

Supported by GIB®, the Warren Trust, and a Walter Linton fellowship, Blackwell is visiting as the Waipapa Taumata Rau University of Auckland Te Pare School of Architecture & Planning’s 2024 International Architect-in-Residence. He is teaching a studio course at the School, and this is one of three public lectures he is giving around the country. Blackwell's lecture in Ōtautahi is organised by Te Pūtahi Centre for Architecture and City Making and hosted by Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū as part of their public programme.

Pictured: Marlon Blackwell Architects, Thaden School Bike Barn, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2020. Photo: Timothy Hursley